Blueberry Picking

by Meri on June 4, 2012

We had a fun weekend adventure to the blueberry farm near our home. Five minutes away for a perfect afternoon getaway with 2-year-olds. I have to thank my friend Monica for letting me know about this little farm as it’s just the type of thing I want to do more of with our kids. It got us outdoors in a relaxed outing, discovering local and seasonal foods that we get to enjoy for the week. All aspects of a Mediterranean lifestyle I’m working on adapting into our own lives.

We don’t have a garden at this time so I love having opportunities for them to learn from an early age where their food comes from instead of assuming it all comes from the supermarket with stickers on them. Oh yes…stickers are always fun for little ones even if they are the ones on your produce, but it’s even more exciting to eat the foods you just picked and prepare them in a special treat.

The kids loved it yet we felt a little guilty as Birdie had basically participated in her first stealing (and hopefully last). She had no interest in collecting blueberries and putting them in the bucket…she just wanted to eat them as she picked and she ate and ate and ate. I’m pretty sure she finished off about a half pint of blueberries no matter how much we tried to deter her. I’m avoiding posting pictures of her munching in case there is some blueberry farm watch group that will send her away to toddler detention.

The good news is Mr. took this task very seriously and filled his entire bucket with lots of blue and some (many) green berries. I figure the amount of green unripened berries we had to purchase in our final count made up for the amount that Birdie (stole) ate along the way.

Tiny enjoyed the fresh air and looking around at everything…we may need to change her nickname to Pokey soon. She’s always about 5 yards behind us looking around, stopping, pointing, and often times getting turned around and going the wrong way. I know, I know…for those of you who know me well that last part sounds familiar. She is a little mini me. Directionally challenged even in a blueberry farm with long straight rows.

For our treat we decided on blueberry crisp which I’ve written about in a previous post. I love this recipe as it uses very simple ingredients with a small amount of sugar for a nice treat! It was a great adventure for all and I hope to do more fruit picking in the future and who knows, we just may be able to start having some gardens and fruit trees of our own soon.